INTRODUCTION TO REBECCA & GOTHIC FICTION

Genre & Gothic Romance

All works of literature can be classified into genres.

Genre - It designates the literary form or type into which works are classified according to what they have in common, either in their formal structures or in their treatment of subject matter, or both.

Genre is a French term derived from the Latin genus, generis, meaning "type," "sort," or "kind."

Genres

The most general genres in literature are (in loose chronological order) epic, tragedy, comedy, novel, short story, and creative nonfiction. They can all be in the genres prose or poetry, which shows best how loosely genres are defined.

Gothic Fiction

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance.

The effect of Gothic fiction feeds on a pleasing sort of terror.

Gothic literature is intimately associated with the Gothic Revival architecture of the same era.

Gothic Revival Architecture The Gothic Revival (also referred to

as Victorian Gothic or Neo-Gothic) is an architectural movement which began in the 1740s in England.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/Neo-Gothic001.jpg

Gothic Fiction…continued…

English Gothic writers often associated medieval buildings with what they saw as a dark and terrifying period, characterized by harsh laws enforced by torture, and with mysterious, fantastic, and superstitious rituals.

Gothic Fiction

Prominent features of Gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical), mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles, darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness, secrets, and hereditary curses.

Gothic Fiction & Female Characters The female protagonists pursued in

these texts are often caught in an unfamiliar and terrifying landscape, delivering higher degrees of horror.

Rebecca & Daphne du Maurier Born 13 May 1907 – Died 19 April

1989. born in London, the second of three

daughters of the prominent actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and actress Muriel Beaumont.

She married Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick "Boy" Browning, with whom she had two daughters, Tessa and Flavia, and a son, Christian.

Daphne du Maurier

Du Maurier has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews.

The novel

"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again" is the book's often quoted opening line, and from here its unnamed narrator recollects her past, telling the story of her transition into womanhood.

The main character, a female, is unnamed.

A story about marriage, love, and a woman named Rebecca.